Xena: Warrior Princess
American television serie that aired from September 15, 1995 until June 18, 2001. The series was produced by Pacific Renaissance Pictures Ltd (owned by Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi) in association with Universal Studios. It stars Lucy Lawless as Xena and Renee O'Connor as her companion Gabrielle. The show chronicles Xena's quest to seek redemption for her past sins as a ruthless warlord by using her formidable fighting skills to help people. Gabrielle becomes Xena's greatest ally, her initial naïveté helps to balance Xena and assists her in recognizing and pursuing the "greater good." The series is a spin-off of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Aware that the character of Xena had been very successful among the public, the producers of the series decided to create a spin-off series based around her adventures. Cast: Xena: Warrior Princess starred Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor, in the roles of Xena and Gabrielle. The original choice to interpret Xena was the British actress Vanessa Angel, but an illness prevented her from travelling, so the role was offered to another four actresses before being given to Lucy. For Gabrielle, Sunny Doench was chosen, but she did not want to leave her boyfriend in the United States and Renee was chosen. During the series, several names were being aggregated to cast, most of them natives of New Zealand. Actor Ted Raimi became an active actor in the second season onwards, in his role as Joxer. The late actor Kevin Tod Smith became popular in the cast from the third season as Ares. Other actors that were very popular among fans of the series was Hudson Leick in her role as Callisto, Karl Urban as Caesar, and Alexandra Tydings as Aphrodite. Setting: Xena Warrior Princess was filmed in New Zealand. Some places are confidential, but many scenes were recorded in places such as the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, part of the Auckland Regional parks often credited at the end of the episodes. Movies: In August 1997 Hercules and Xena: The Battle For Mount Olympus a DTV animated movie was released, featuring the voices of a number of actors from both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. The movie plot involves Hercules' mother being kidnapped by Zeus and the release of the Titans. Xena and Gabrielle have supporting roles in the movie, and at one point Xena even bursts into song. Since the end of the series rumors have circulated that a feature length movie was in the works. In 2003 Screenwriter Katherine Fugate was approached for the project, and was quoted saying that she expects the start of production to be three to five years away, which suggests a release sometime between 2006 and 2009. Actress Lucy Lawless has been quoted in several interviews saying she would be interested in participating in a Xena film as well. Costume donation: In 2006, Lucy Lawless donated her personal Xena costume to the Museum of American History. In an interview the same year with Smithsonian magazine, she was asked the question "Was the Warrior Princess outfit comfortable?" and she responded: Not at first, because they would put boning in the corset. It would cover up those little floating ribs that are so important for breathing, so I'd feel like I was having panic attacks. But it just became a second skin after a while. It was very functional, once I got over the modesty factor. I admit to being a little bit embarrassed the first couple weeks because I'd never worn anything so short. External links: * Xena: Warrior Princess at IMDB * Xena: Warrior Princess at TV.com Category:Fictional Super Women Warriors And Goddesses Category:Female actresses Category:Women's television